U.S. Congress passes short-term bill to avert government shutdown

The Republican-led Congress averted a U.S. government shutdown on Friday, giving lawmakers another week to work out federal spending through Sept. 30, with tricky issues like defense spending still unresolved.

The Republican-led Congress averted a U.S. government shutdown on Friday, giving lawmakers another week to work out federal spending through Sept. 30, with tricky issues like defense spending still unresolved.(Reuters)

The Republican-led Congress averted a U.S. government shutdown on Friday, giving lawmakers another week to work out federal spending through Sept. 30, with tricky issues like defense spending still unresolved. The Senate passed a stopgap measure by voice vote without opposition after the House earlier approved it by a tally of 382-30. The measure now goes to Republican President Donald Trump to sign into law, preventing a shutdown of many parts of the federal government on Saturday, his 100th day in office. The bill provides federal funding until the end of May 5, allowing lawmakers to hammer out legislation in the coming days to keep the government funded for the rest of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. Congress has been tied in knots over $1 trillion in spending priorities for months. Lawmakers were supposed to have taken care of the current fiscal year appropriations bills by last Oct. 1.

Democrats backed the stopgap bill a day after House Republican leaders again put off a vote on major health care legislation sought by Trump and opposed by Democrats to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, after Republican moderates balked at provisions added to entice hard-line conservatives. Republicans are seeking a defense spending increase in the bigger funding bill to be negotiated in the coming days. Republican and Democratic negotiators have been discussing a possible compromise with a $15 billion defense spending hike for the rest of fiscal 2017, half of what Trump has requested, according to two congressional aides familiar with the matter. It was not clear whether other domestic programs would get a similar funding increase, a condition Democrats set early on.

Congressional negotiators also have been struggling over funding to make a healthcare program for coal miners permanent and whether to plug a gap in Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program, the government health insurance program for the poor. BIT MORE TIME’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the stopgap bill, avoiding the first government shutdown since 2013, “will carry us through next week so that a bipartisan agreement can be reached.” McConnell said he expected the House by the middle of next week to approve and send to the Senate the spending bill for the remaining five months of the fiscal year.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said there were still significant differences with Republicans over elements of the looming longer-term spending bill but “we’re willing to extend things for a little bit more time” in hope more progress can be made. The No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said he would oppose any more temporary spending bills for this year. During debate in the House, lawmakers expressed frustration at the inability of Congress to take care of the basic functions of government in a timely manner.”We are seven months into the fiscal year,” said Representative Nita Lowey of New York, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “Federal departments and agencies have been operating on outdated funding levels and policies for more than half of the year. This is unacceptable and it cannot continue.”

Lowey noted that this was the third stopgap spending measure passed since the fiscal year began last October.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters aboard Air Force One the White House feels “very good” about getting the funding extension next week through the end of the fiscal year. Trump earlier bowed to Democratic demands that the spending legislation for the rest of the fiscal year does not include money to start building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border he said is needed to fight illegal immigration and stop drug smugglers. The Trump administration also agreed to continue funding for a major component of Obamacare despite Republican vows to end the program